Lake Bacalar

A nice easy transition for us this time as we caught the midday ADO bus for the 1.5 hour journey to Bacalar Lake. This time the bus was packed out with people standing in the aisle and I was lucky enough to have a local Mexican with half his diner slopped down his rather large belly being rubbed in my face as he stood next to me in the aisle.. From the smell of it I think it was Taco sauce with a hint of pig manure and body odour. Hmmmm.....my favourito!

Kathy browsed in here to find 'something for the weekend'.

  At Bacalar the bus dropped us off on the main road so we walked into town to our hotel which was not far, maybe 1km but it turned out a bad idea as the heat was intense. With the added weight of the rucksacks we only just made it before we both expired with heat stroke in the middle of the road.
  Posada Casa Madrid was a cool place to stay with the necessary air-con, a terrace where we could hang a hammock and some deck chairs which doubled up as rocking chairs. Never seen that before!
  We walked into town after unpacking and explored to find it laid back and very agreeable if a little spread out and sparse as it was quite a small town. There was a lakeside fort which was pleasant and a pretty town square which is where we found a roadside stall selling tacos so tucked into a few of them for lunch. We took it easy on the hot sauce though as it was lethal and with the afternoon temperature in the high 30's it would not take much for us to totally overheat by running out of sweat. The day drifted on by and so did we ambling about but the heat was too much so we retired back to hammocks and air-con only to venture out for Burritos and beers for dinner on the square where we were treated to a fire juggling show while we ate.

More tacos.

   Next day was so hot by 8am that it scared us to leave the room but we knew the lake offered a cool swim so headed that way. The public bathing area was rammed with families being a Sunday so did not look inviting. So we walked another 10 minutes down the road and came to an ecological park where we paid our 12p entrance fee and had a beautiful access to the lake. Here we swam in the warm clear waters for a couple of hours until it was late enough in the day to go and buy our onward bus tickets from the ADO office. Dinner followed which was a Alambras which is like a plate of food and a pile of tacos (which are soft here, not crispy as in England) and you get a few bowls of condiments which contain limes, pickles, salsa and mouth burning sauces and make your own tacos. Very nice indeed.

Southend pier was in need of renovation.

  Next day we really thought we should make an effort and see the place and get some exercise as swinging in a hammock was becoming very obsessive. We left early for the 2 mile walk to the Azul cenote. This is a deep limestone hole which is feed by a natural spring. The day soon became hot,hot,hot and the walk labour some but we made it sweating profusely to the cenote. We paid our £1 entry fee and were rewarded by a stunning sight of beautiful clear water lake surrounded by uninterrupted jungle.

The azul cenote. 90 metres deep.

We stayed here for a few hours taking in lunch at the adjacent restaurant and then headed for the dreaded walk back to town but were distracted by a nice spot by the lake. We again paid our £1 entry fee and found it what was called Cocalitos where it had unusual mushroom type formations in the water that just about broke the surface. Very strange to look at but beautiful. The lake here was outstanding and we had never seen such a paradise. The water crystal clear with bright white beaches and in the middle they had swings. Photos can't do it justice with the different hues of blue in the reflection of the sun.

Rock formations or aliens?

 After a couple of hours we continued our walk back to town but again got distracted by a beer shop and a pier that extended into another great vista so done the decent thing a took sunset bevvies on the lake. Eventually we made it back to base and were too exhausted to go out for dinner but did make it back up to the main road for another Alambras and some more cold ones as it stays hot here into the night. In fact it's hot all night.

One hell of a swingers party here.

  The following day we slept in as we had exhausted ourselves from the hot walk the day before. We sauntered the morning away doing some washing as our clothes were becoming smelly quickly with the constant sweating. Yuk! More tacos for lunch followed, then a walk down to the public bathing area which was free and also commanded one of the best spots on the lake view wise. There was a nice pier which projected into the lake to afford some excellent swimming opportunities. After a few hours here we again hit the beer shop for our sunset pier beers.

Ever seen water so beautiful?

 That night we seeked out a pizza as tacos and burritos were getting a bit tiresome. We even had a fire show from a couple of street performers. Back at the hotel we squared up our bill which for once was less than we expected to pay which was a nice surprise. Not a lot of adventures here in Bacalar as it was such a nice easy going straightforward kind of place and we really enjoyed just kicking back doing nothing but tomorrow we are off to our next destination which is a wild card as it is not a tourist destination so maybe we will witness what the real Mexico is like or just get too far out of our depth as usual in Felippe Carillo Puerto.

The streets had lots of very good street art to look at.